One Small Step

 DVD, Voyager S6 (One Small Step)

One small step up in my affections, that's how I came to view this story. Whether it was so much mediocre Trek recently (Season 3 of 'Lower Decks' hasn't lived up to the promise of Season 2), or going in with low expectations, I really warmed to this one. It's very much classic Trek, people solving a problem while at the same time connecting to the past, and a character learning something about humanity in general, and perhaps themselves. The key to its goodness is its warmth, and the most immediate parallel that came to mind, as it always does in this category of pleasant, joyful storytelling, was 'Star Trek IV.' Not one of my favourites, but it has that joy to it, that warm feeling you get when seeing these characters interact, it really is as simple as that. It's a Seven of Nine story, and we hadn't been inundated with her so far this season, but even more, she has nice little scenes with most of the other characters and learns a little piece of the puzzle that is being human from each of them: the Doctor reminds her to pause on her Away Mission and appreciate the moment; she argues over logic with Tuvok who patiently explains that Starfleet is about exploration in spite of risk; Chakotay's enthusiasm for the subject matter adds a new dimension to his character; and Janeway, though basically ordering her to volunteer, also makes a precursor of the speech Captain Archer would make about sending out probes if it was merely research data Starfleet wanted, that it's firsthand experience that matters.

Funny that Archer should have said very close to the same thing since this is one small step along the road (and it's a long road, don't forget!), to 'Enterprise,' another entry for the 'Star Trek Chronology' if it had made it into a reprint post-1996 when the last (to date), publishing took place. When the episode was made it was over thirty years to the 2032 date of the flashback scenes of astronaut John Kelly and his Ares IV mission to Mars. They should have known from experience with 'TOS,' which was still as visible in the late-90s as it ever had been over thirty years after first transmission, that 'Voyager' was just as likely to be remembered in such a timeframe, and perhaps they also should have learned from Trek's experience of predicting events only a few decades hence, that our timeline would quickly enough catch up to Trek 'reality' and these episodes would still be watched at that time. No doubt they knew it might not make believable viewing by then (though in fairness the glimpses we get of actual technology are brief, it's more about the feasibility of travel to Mars), and perhaps if we'd not had the resurgence of a third era (either 2009 onwards or 2017 on, depending upon point of view), it would've made no difference if Trek was largely forgotten - who knows, maybe Trek will truly have dropped off the radar (or should that be lidar?), by the 2030s since we're still almost a decade away from 2032, and judging by how the property has been run into the ground with its middling-at-best TV shows and films of recent years that has made plenty of long-term fanatics (such as myself), question whether Trek has any value any more, it could still happen. But I suspect 'Voyager' will still be watched and enjoyed (and I hope by me), and really it's not about trying to be accurate in predicting the future, it's about the time it was made.

That's why it greatly annoyed me to hear that 'Strange New Worlds' had actively changed the timeline of the Eugenics Wars to try and make it fit with our own history (rather than blending it into then-current events of the Nineties as we used to look at it), because Trek history and its fidelity and consistency is one of its greatest appeals and helped to make it what it was. It doesn't look very likely we'll be sending a manned mission to Mars by 2032, though not impossible, and it was really about continuing a tradition for supporting NASA and the real space programme that Trek had always had an affinity for - I won't go into a list of all the connections between the two, but the reality of space travel and keeping things grounded to what the future might hold had always been important. That is until the comic book film approach was applied from 'Star Trek XI' onwards and those same aesthetics and styles were used to create the modern era, much to my disappointment and disgust, and why so much of Trek has degenerated into galaxy-ending disaster and superheroes going around saving everything. One reason I went into this with low expectations were thoughts of 'The Royale' in my head, one of, if not the most boring episodes of 'TNG,' similarly dealing with early manned missions into space beyond the time they were made. As interesting as it can be to give us data points of how the Trek future came to pass, it's whether it's fitted into a good story that matters more. Much like '11:59' which was low-key, but had good character work.

'One Small Step' was an example of doing that well, and though I'd thought of it as a dull episode, I really didn't miss the adventure and excitement that some other stories pack in. I realised that it was about Seven's awakening to the importance of history, and as Janeway said (or was it Chakotay?), by what they were doing they were becoming part of history. Not that they weren't already - from 'DSC' we know the Voyager series has a long line of ships in the same vein as the legendary Enterprise (even if it is caused more by recognition that the younger audience of streaming favoured that most out of the older series', which isn't really the best basis for in-universe notoriety!), as far into the future as the 32nd Century. But what they mean is they're part of the history that's going back to the origins of Trek, those first steps into space exploration in person. I wonder why they chose to actually show parts of Kelly's experiences? They could just as easily have had them all be logs played on a screen of which we saw some examples. I suppose that would have made us, as viewers, more removed from Kelly, and since we don't have that life of appreciating him as a hero in the young minds of some of the characters, we wouldn't have the same reaction, so it does make sense that we should be privileged to witness some of those events firsthand (such as realising there must be other races other than humanity when he sees a chunk of hull plating go past his module, though he died with that knowledge all to himself, never fully knowing the vast possibilities out there and making his death even more poignant).

They brought Phil Morris in for the key role of Kelly, and this only added a greater sense of tying in to past history since his Trek credits, though few, had stretched from a child in 'TOS' (being the son of 'Mission: Impossible' lead Greg Morris he was used along with several other children of actors), to one of the original films in the Eighties, to a couple of aliens in 'DS9,' so it was fitting he should play this role, and sadly has been the last entry in his Trek contribution since then, though he's still active and could certainly return (if he hasn't already). One thing that spoke volumes about the way they did things in this era was how Kelly's decomposing corpse was never fully shown - the most we see is a uniformed arm and a bit of hand. By not showing his face it demonstrated proper respect for this man, and though we see Seven glance at him we only see him in the flashbacks and recordings so he remains alive to us (reminding me to some extent of Captain Cusack in 'The Sound of Her Voice' on 'DS9'). It also gave him presence in the present day, there's a sense that Seven is walking around a tomb, not in a creepy way to try and generate discomfort or fear, but she seems to present a respectful manner, and though it's never discussed as a tomb, they're far too excited to be discovering this place, the whole shooting and way it was done felt very right and proper, something I can't imagine in the madcap world of 'Lower Decks,' for example. It was serious and sensitive, and so when we have a final scene that shows him the greatest of respect with a memorial service on the Bridge, Kelly's body shot out into space in the traditional torpedo casing, it can only evoke Spock's funeral in 'Star Trek II' and was actually quite touching (though it left me wondering if they had the tube on the Bridge did they then beam it to the launcher as it appears to be ejected from the ship rather than being beamed out).

The honour they afford to this space pioneer is what gives the episode its solid base, and how much enthusiasm there is to try and track down the module provides that necessary motivation for the story, epitomised by Chakotay's reckless actions that show how much it meant to him personally. What they're doing when they fire Kelly into space is really no different than his current fate trapped in this graviton ellipse that's preserved the Ares IV for three hundred years, but it's the act that is important, giving him a proper sendoff, and that whole scene was lovingly put together, whether it was the majority of the senior staff in dress uniforms, or Seven quietly telling Kelly who won the World Series (even if I instantly guessed that would happen the moment he mentioned wishing he'd known as he slips into death - in similar vein, when I was young I used to worry I might die before the Treks I loved ended!), and even sparing a shot of Chakotay and the Doctor standing attentive at his side in Sickbay to show they're part of it even if not present in the room, it was very movingly done and capped the episode beautifully. It wouldn't have fit with the mood of how the episode closed out, but there really needed to be a scene somewhere in which Janeway gave Chakotay a dressing down for almost losing the Delta Flyer and getting he and his team killed when he deliberately defied her order to get out of the ellipse as fast as possible - he instead continues trying to pull the Ares out with them and Seven is entirely disgusted with him. Her scenes with Chakotay were my favourite, in this instance she's practically insubordinate in her sarcastic or scathing tone that he may have condemned them to death, while he, weak in his bed, tries to ascertain what's going on.

Even with this scene it was so 'right' - that's the best way I can describe it. It's this rightness that is so lacking in the vast majority of modern Trek: although Chakotay was so eager to see the inside of the Ares, his disobedience means he never sees the 'promised land' as it were, having to leave the honour to someone that doesn't care about the history and importance of it all. That was punishment enough for someone who'd been enthused by it from a young age, and yet he's not bitter, he doesn't lose his temper with the more inexperienced Seven, just accepts the situation he's in, even finishing with a running joke of making a bad joke to defuse the tension, calling back to Seven's attempt earlier in the episode when she'd reverted to her old ways and started making modifications to the ship without authorisation because authority, in the form of B'Elanna, wouldn't consider them (causing malfunctions to abound as a consequence!). Her interactions throughout were well written and charming, because we've seen her come so far and yet she can still have that Borg drone edge of argumentativeness, she hasn't solved all her issues entirely, as well rounded as she's become. The only downside is that, as with so many times when she's taken the role another character might have had, without her in the series this could probably have been B'Elanna's story. You can imagine her being just as dismissive of such history (even sharing that heritage in the same way Seven does), and such old technology, or maybe learning to appreciate how advanced it was for its time, certainly the engineering side would have made complete sense (though she is the one on Voyager who comes up with the plan to get power from a component of the Ares, so even where there are complaints the characters overall were well integrated).

Having some crew-members trapped somewhere and the others having to work out how to save them is one of those things that makes Trek what it is, another reason it appealed to me more on this viewing. Character, too, is very important, and this was very far from being an effects spectacular where they deal with aliens of the week, it's a unique story in that they're taking on an anomaly, there's no villain (another connection with 'Star Trek IV'), it's a natural phenomena that fits perfectly with the Starfleet ethos. I loved that Tuvok reacted to Seven's assertion that logically they shouldn't go after this thing because it was too much of a risk by explaining they don't know what may be discovered through exploration. It was only a small scene, but Seven comes across so often as the closest to a Vulcan woman as you can get (more-so than T'Pol who shouldn't have been showing as much emotion as she did), and I always wish there were more scenes between herself and Tuvok. Chakotay can often be left behind in a story since he's not the Captain and can become almost a placeholder while she and the crew have all the 'fun,' but in this case he's a very active part. You can't call it a Chakotay episode because he's sidelined by his injury, and it becomes a Seven story primarily, but he is key. From the start I was a touch disappointed when we have the door chiming in his Quarters and there's no one there because I always enjoy the creepy episodes, and this wasn't that at all, perhaps one reason I didn't really warm to it on my last viewing as it set me up to think it would be a certain kind of story it wasn't.

One other reminder of what I so liked about Trek was its attitude to the past and to history, which isn't always reflected in today's world. One example is that we see Chakotay reading a hefty old hardbound book in his Quarters (apparently at two in the morning, so it must have been a real page-turner - he also sits in his uniform showing how comfortable they are that he doesn't feel the need to change out of it!). It's probably more likely nowadays that someone would be reading on the equivalent of a PADD, but it's great to see a real book being used as it ties these characters into the past, just as Kirk or Picard had real books on their shelves, or that Jean-Luc explained to Data the power of a tactile connection with something as when he felt the surface of the Phoenix in 'First Contact.' Trek postulated that we wouldn't forget the importance of such things and I wonder if we are now? Do we see real books in modern Trek, other than a garish 'modern-looking' printing of 'Alice in Wonderland' in 'DSC'? It's only a small detail yet it says so much and is another appealing aspect of Trek made then. Talking of history, Buck Bokai, a famous baseball player of the then-future mentioned in 'TNG' as far back as Season 1 and seen in 'DS9' (recreated by aliens, of course), as far back as Season 1, gets another reference from John Kelly which shows the kind of intricate detail they could get in on occasion - modern Treks have become rife with references as if to cover the other inconsistencies with the tone and style of their predecessors, but in this case they probably just seized on anything that Kelly might have known about that had been previously established. Funnily enough there was a bit of a mess-up with Bokai's record as the year he did it is apparently wrong, according to the entry in 'The Star Trek Encyclopedia'!

Janeway mentions the Shroud of Kahless which was another fun connection to 'DS9' since this was the clue that started Dahar Master Kor on his quest for the famed Sword of Kahless. And Chakotay says after being injured it was like going ten rounds with an Andorian, referring both to his penchant for boxing, but also the superior physical strength of that species (though you can usually take it as read that aliens are likely to be much stronger than humans!). Unless Chakotay was actually referring to Ushann, the Andorian duel with ice knives seen in 'Enterprise,' though I imagine their temperament would mean they'd just as happily take on alien forms of combat. There's even a rare Biblical reference as Kelly talks about Jonah, even if it was inaccurate as he goes with the popular myth that it was a whale rather than merely a big fish as the Bible describes it! Still, it was yet another little reminder of the connection Trek had to our culture that has been more and more eroded - I can't imagine them making any direct Biblical references in today's Trek, though there are undoubtedly examples of language and sayings they don't necessarily even know come from that source. What else do I like? The reality of the flashback scenes - most of the time Kelly's strapped in his chair, but we do also see him float around briefly, and to reinforce the idea they didn't have artificial gravity in those days Seven has to wear magnetic boots (or I should say activate the magnetic boots since they come as standard in EVA suits), with the same sound effect as the hull-walking scene on the Enterprise-E in 'First Contact.'

Even my wish to see more of the beautiful imagery of Voyager on the ellipse's tail, its golden glow throwing a beautiful light on the hull, was granted, and though the episode isn't full of action and spectacle they sold the situation of the Flyer very well, both in when Chakotay makes his gambit to keep hold of the Ares, and when Voyager is finally able to grab onto the Flyer to pull it out. In every respect the episode worked, and while I still wouldn't rate it a classic, as a simple little tale it's a good solid example that makes use of its characters. It may be the start of Seven of Nine overkill, I don't remember, but the brilliance of Jeri Ryan's skill is shown in full. Again, like the story, it's not a tour de force for her, she's merely doing those things that endear the character and fit in so perfectly with what had been established, but she does it with absolute aplomb that makes her a joy to watch. It's still so hard to reconcile the messed-up version from 'Picard' with such a terrific character and I try not to go on about it in every single review, but it's just so stunning the quality seen here and so absent in the later series I can't help but be even more impressed by the one in this series and disgusted by the lost opportunity of bringing back such an amazing character. I loved that her Borg knowledge saved their lives again as she knows how to avoid the Ares' fate when the ellipse is drawn to Voyager, I loved that she's at the stage where she makes the best of it even when she doesn't want to do something, and she was simply delightful, making jokes, admitting a very personal secret that she'd wanted to be a ballerina as a child, considering her own expertise essential to the mission's success, even if her heart wasn't in it, and then finding some heart to put into it - she could have beamed out anything, some technology or something that might be useful to the ship, instead of a dead body that has no use, but that act shows she came to understand a respect for human life and human death and what Kelly's achievement represented. I didn't even realise it was directed by Robert Picardo! Sterling job, sir.

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